I attended the funeral of an acquaintance, who died last Thursday of cancer.
The service was conducted at the Free Church (Continuing) in
Sandwick. This split off from the main Free Church of Scotland a number
of years ago. In common with the Free Church, no musical instruments
were present in that place of worship, which was also totally
unadorned. I was 20 minutes early, but the carpark was already full -
and carparks at churches here tend to be very spacious. Virtually all
the men were wearing black or dark long coats, particularly the
elderly. Some of the ladies wore a hat. Once all the mourners were
inside, the chief mourners (the relatives) filed in and the service
commenced, at the exact time advertised. Those who know Stornoway will
be familiar with the little death notices in the windows of certain
shops. The notices intimate the time of the funeral, and the time of
the service - in this case the service commenced half an hour before
the funeral.
The service started with the singing of part of Psalm 98, where the
tune was precented a capella by the precentor, with the congregation
joining in, at their own pitch and at times their own tempo. One
minister offered up prayers for the family, friends, colleagues and
acquaintances of the deceased. A church elder then read from Isaiah 40
and Matthew 11, before Psalm 23 was sung in Gaelic. On that occasion, I
hummed the tune, as the words are beyond me. Following a final prayer
by another minister, the chief mourners filed out of the church with
the rest of the congregation standing up, following on behind.
Once outside, a unique ritual began to unfold. The menfolk, myself
included, filed up in two lines, standing next to each other. In
between, the coffin stood on a bier, and men took turns to carry the
bier a longer or shorter distance. The road was closed to traffic, and
in this instance it was Sandwick Road, the main road linking Stornoway
with the airport. There were about 200 people present, and the carrying
of the coffin carried on to the junction with North Street, and up
North Street. Once people had done their stint of carrying, they would
stand aside and cast their gaze aside as well. Those who had not yet
done a stint continued to follow the coffin, until they had their
chance.
Once the procession had passed me, after I had done my bit of
carrying, I left proceedings. A bus was ready to take the chief
mourners to the cemetery at Gress for interment.
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